summary ofA Room of One's OwnBook by Virginia Woolf

first KEY POINT

Ridiculous limitations women faced in the past

In the modern world, being a woman has become an easier task than ever before. In the past, women didn't have the numerous opportunities that men had. Virginia Woolf, a prominent English writer of the 20th century, struggled with many limitations too. In A Room of One's Own, she reflects on the life peculiarities of women as writers and characters in books. Her feminist work helps us learn how women felt in the past and how they were portrayed.One of the brightest thoughts in the book is that, to become a writer, a woman has to have her own room. Using her fictional name, Mary, Woolf tells a story about her stroll in an imaginary university called Oxbridge on a charming autumn morning. Nature and buildings were beautiful, and Mary plunged into her thoughts. She was interrupted by a warden because she didn't notice how she was walking on the lawn. The warden's outrageous facial expression and gestures indicated she shouldn't have walked on the grass.A modern reader would think that he wanted to protect plants from human intrusion. However, the true reason for the warden's disturbance was that a woman allowed herself to walk in a place that was only accessible to men, and women could only walk on the path.Writing about fiction, Woolf expressed a profound thought that a story has to follow the facts to be good. So she decided to describe all situations the way they actually happened, even without embellishing the season when they happened.

Woolf dined with Mary Seton in the dining room, thinking about the inability to order food in her room because she was a woman. During their conversation, Mary mentioned her mother and the possibility of starting a business to make a lot of money. Her mother could have invested this money in education for women, and the conversation could have happened in her room with the ordered food and wine.After reading this summary, you will understand which limitations women faced while wanting the same possibilities as men. For example, a woman couldn’t enter the library without being accompanied by a man. You will read more ridiculous restrictions women had to endure in their challenging routine. Woolf vividly conveyed emotions that women felt while trying to survive in the world of men.